Effect of gold-nanoparticle size on microfiber saturable absorber for mode-locked erbium-doped fiber lasers

The optical performance of passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser incorporating gold-nanoparticles (Au-NPs) of different sizes as saturable absorbers (SAs) was compared. A com-posite of Au-NPs with polydimethylsiloxane was spin coated on the surface of a microfiber waveguide. The fabricated Au-NP-based SA was deployed in a ring cavity erbium-doped fiber laser and its lasing performance was evaluated by comparing SA characteristics as well as pulse qualities among the different Au-NP sizes. The optimum pulse performance was realized when the SA was fabricated with 20 and 40 nm Au-NP size. For the former, time-bandwidth product of 0.34 was demonstrated which was the closest to its bandwidth-limited pulse. As for the latter, the fabricated SA exhibited 4.0% modulation depth and an average pulse duration of 886.7 fs. The research work has demonstrated the functionality of Au-NPs as a saturable absorption material for ultrashort pulses generation. In addition, the influence of nanomaterial size towards the char-acteristics of saturable absorbers, ergo the quality of laser pulse, was verified. This finding is also valuable in customizing ultrashort pulse output that can effectively suit system performance need.